Saturday, December 20, 2014

FuturesPast Editions is so excited to the only publisher of the work of the late
pulp science fiction author Stuart J. Byrne authorized by his estate,
and to finally bring his entire Star Man saga into print for ebook
readers at last - especially books 7-11 which have been out of print for
more than a decade, and the never-before published 12th volume - that
we want everyone to read this masterful fusion of space opera,
metaphysics and just plain fun!.

So we are giving away an ebook edition of the first two books in the series, Supermen of Alpha and Time Window free in a special 2 in 1 omnibus.

Byrne
wrote The Star Man saga when the last U.S. publisher of the Perry
Rhodan series lost the license to translate any further Rhodan books.
Asked to come up with something that would appeal to the same audience,
went back to a pulp novel he had written in the mid-1950s and retooled
it as an unfolding tale of cosmic adventure seemingly without end.

###

Below is how the author described the Star Man series when it was later sold to Dell Publishing's Dell Paperback division:

"Originating
from story material preceding Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Deepspace
9, and Babylon 5, the Star Man saga reaches beyond them in terms of unlimited concept,
scope, and characterization — the kind of old time vicarious reading adventure that
entraps you.

In the far
future, the trinary star system of Alpha Centauri is Man's new frontier and threshold
to the galaxy. But the tri-planet dictatorship of Sol (Earth, Mars, Venus) triggers
an interstellar revolution. The Star Man, Steve Germaine, becomes the catalyst:
the Alpha uprisings, the mutinous star trip to Sol, capturing a prize of war, raiding
the cosmium vaults of Martanium on Mars, riding a comet to Luna (our moon) and blasting
the Empire Fleet, raising a second front on Venus (while enslaved), finding the
lost mutant labs of the 23rd century "Magicians" (mutants), using their
science to create a cosmium-powered inversion-drive star ship, then becoming lost
in a negative universe and discovering the awesome Nebula Worlds, only to fall into
a time trap, etc.

What of the
cosmic secret of the Quasar Crystals, of the Era Unspoken, the Star Warden guidance
of the Lords of the Nebula? Meet "Si" the human cyborg . . . Alphie, the
batrachian mascot creature with a child mind and super I.Q. . . and great Karmax,
the "Minotaur" wizard-creator of the Temonoids (one step beyond androids)
with his destiny-warping super-cosmic quest. Who are the sacred ZRAAL, the oldest
star race? WE are! Earth is merely a time-lost pocket colony of the ancient Zraal;
Germaine is the mutant key to our new stellar emergence, aided by superhumans whose task is to
prepare ALL worlds for the coming threat of the Kosmikons. (This is a Unisol word
for Cosmi-Khans, Dark Force hordes from Beyond.) Hence the Star Wardens' secret
communications via the Quasar Crystals, to those who are "ready" to understand.

On the personal
side, Star Man's perennial enemy is Vincent Cardwell, nefarious empire builder..
The mysterious woman between them is the beautiful mutant, Anne Cardwell, who bears
a mutant son. Actually there are twins, one of whom is a negative personality, kidnaped
by Cardwell and groomed for becoming Sol's first emperor. The indestructible Emperor
becomes a nemesis to both Cardwell AND Germaine. Through a stolen Quasar Crystal,
he contacts alien agencies of the dreaded
Kosmikons.

The Star Man
series is never-ending in its wide-ranging expansions and thought-variant scope.
Alien worlds and civilizations, negative and alternate-time universes, cosmic purposes,
cosmic threats..."

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

THIS SPECIAL SCIENCE FICTION EVENT PRESENTED BY STUART J. BYRNE AND FUTURES PAST EDITIONS - DON'T OVER LOOK THE NO STRINGS ATTACHED FREE EBOOK OFFER AT THE END OF THIS POST!

Considered one of, and by many people, the worst science fiction movie ever made. Mention of it made the late author, golden age pulp science fiction magazine writer Stuart J. Byrne, foam at the mouth.

One reviewer at Archive.org put it this way:

"I'd like to know the behind the scenes story to this movie.

CLEARLY this movie was a patch up job and it isn't a good one. The opening looks like it was made during the height of the (impossible to look good) 1970's to mid to later 1960's (I think '67) with everyone looking like they were from that period. The ending is right out of Bill Rebane's Monster A GoGo (another patchup job of a movie) with a voice over basically telling the ending. The original actors had to be long gone by the time they got around to filming an ending (1972?) so they had people in space suits with voiceover communication trying (in vain) to sound like the original cast members.

Hearing how the production died and why in Gods name someone tried to save the original footage from complete film obscurity is something I'd like to know. I guess having Bobby Van, Grant Williams, and Ruta Lee was too much star power to leave in an unfinished film.

Incidentally, the man responsible for reviving this movie also was guilty of making movies like Smokey ad the Judge and Enter ANOTHER Dragon. You can guess where he was springing these movies off of."

Click below to hear the author's own explanation.

Now watch the movie - if you dare - if you can take it all the way through!

Now read the first two novels in the science fiction saga Stuart J. Byrne considered his masterpiece, the Star Man saga, absolutely free!

FuturesPast Editions is so excited to the only publisher of the work of the late
pulp science fiction author Stuart J. Byrne authorized by his estate,
and to finally bring his entire Star Man saga into print for ebook
readers at last - especially books 7-11 which have been out of print for
more than a decade, and the never-before published 12th volume - that
we want everyone to read this masterful fusion of space opera,
metaphysics and just plain fun!.

So we are giving away an ebook edition of the first two books in the series, Supermen of Alpha and Time Window free in a special 2 in 1 omnibus.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Excerpted from Stuart J. Byrne's Saved by an Angel &
Other Strange, True and Untold Tales

from the Life of a Maverick Science
Fiction Writer (FuturesPast Editions). In the following selection, the golden age pulp author for Amazing Stories and Other Worlds tells how he came to be a translator for the first Perry Rhodan U. S. Series published by Ace Books and edited by Forrest J Ackerman. Then he describes the financial dispute that brought that series to an end and the inspiration that resulted in the birth of his 13 volume Star Man saga [available from FuturesPast Editionsas Perry Rhodan's replacement. (At the end of this post learn where you can get an ebook of the first two Star Man novels Free!)

After
my NATO trips for Litton I remained in Operations ... this led to a job
opportunity at Scientific Data Systems in El Segundo...
Unfortunately, business slowed down for the Data Systems Division, and
in 1969 I was caught in the layoff.

Taxes, mortgage payments and the price of bread were still
the immutables of life to be faced. ...But when I combed the field for tech writing
jobs I ran into the oldie about being "over qualified."

...In two days I received a
call from Forrie Ackerman's wife, Wendayne.
She wanted to

know if I'd like to try some German translation. She and Forrie were agents for Ace
Pocketbooks, who were publishing English translations of the famous German
science-fiction series, Perry Rhodan.
Owing to popular demand in America, she and her brother could not keep
up with the number of 30,000-word novelettes to be translated, and they needed
help. I started translating two per
month at $400 each. This was exactly the
$800 per month I had sought to manifest.

[Five years later] Ace Pocketbooks and the Germans fell out of
agreement concerning money exchange control, and the Perry Rhodan translations
came to an abrupt end. This sent 4000
mail-order readers into an uproar, so I proposed to Forrie and Wendy that we
might be able to satisfy such a clientele with a science-fiction series of our
own – based on an old novel of mine, Power Metal (Other Worlds,
1953).

Out of this came my Star Man
series, which some of the fans said were better than Rhodan. Forrie and Wendy published them through their
own company, Master Publications. So the
magic still seemed to be holding, until Forrie and Wendy could not keep up with
the publishing costs.

So far I had
produced 13 Star Man novelettes. Whether
or not that old devil's number 13 tried to kill the magic, the cold fact
remained that I was once more out of work.
Or had the magic really been defeated?
One day Forrie, who was my agent, called me up and said I was rich. Dell Books had just sent him an advance
royalty check of $15,000 for the first five Star Man stories.

Friday, March 21, 2014

The following is taken from an early exchange in the author and editor's correspondence about the Star Man saga. When Master Publications lost its license to publish an American edition of the internationally bestselling German sensation, the interstellar adventures of Perry Rhodan. in 1971, it asked Stuart J. Byrne, a Rhodan translator and veteran pulp magazine author, to write something equally cosmic. Drawing on elements of a serial he had written in the 1950s, Byrne created the grand space opera known as the Star Man saga. But after publishng the first eleven books in the series, Master Publications went out of business. Read below as the author recounts the next twist of the equally cosmic saga of Star Man's torturous road to publication.

"One day Forrie [Forrest J Ackerman], who was my agent, called me up and said I was
rich. Dell Books had just sent him an advance royalty check of $15,000 for the first
five Star Man stories. After taxes and agency fee, I was looking at
$12,000.

"[But] a jinx eventually killed the publishing opportunity
with Dell Books, regarding Star Man. I was able to keep the money, but they did not publish Star Man.
The reason for it was that Forrie had included a clause in the contract requiring
Dell to publish within two years or return all rights to me. And Dell, being a ponderous
operation, failed to meet the date. Close, but—!"

Below is the proposal Stuart J. Byrne wrote for the Star Man books, when Ackerman decided to approach several science fiction paperback houses about republishing them for a wider audience than Master Publications had reached. These are the words that sold Star Man to Dell Books.

PROPOSAL FOR THE STAR MAN SERIES

BY STUART J. BYRNE

Originating from story material preceding Star Trek, Star Wars,
Battlestar Galactica, Deepspace 9, and Babylon 5, the Star Man saga reaches beyond
them in terms of unlimited concept, scope, and characterization — the kind of old
time vicarious reading adventure that entraps you.

In the far future, the trinary star system of Alpha Centauri
is Man's new frontier and threshold to the galaxy. But the tri-planet dictatorship
of Sol (Earth, Mars, Venus) triggers an interstellar revolution. The Star Man, Steve
Germaine, becomes the catalyst: the Alpha uprisings, the mutinous star trip to Sol,
capturing a prize of war, raiding the cosmium vaults of Martanium on Mars, riding
a comet to Luna (our moon) and blasting the Empire Fleet, raising a second front
on Venus (while enslaved), finding the lost mutant labs of the 23rd century "Magicians"
(mutants), using their science to create a cosmium-powered inversion-drive star
ship, then becoming lost in a negative universe and discovering the awesome Nebula
Worlds, only to fall into a time trap, etc.

What of the cosmic secret of the Quasar Crystals, of the Era
Unspoken, the Star Warden guidance of the Lords of the Nebula? Meet "Si"
the human cyborg . . . Alphie, the batrachian mascot creature with a child mind
and super I.Q. . . and great Karmax, the "Minotaur" wizard-creator of
the Temonoids (one step beyond androids) with his destiny-warping super-cosmic quest.
Who are the sacred ZRAAL, the oldest star race? WE are! Earth is merely a time-lost
pocket colony of the ancient Zraal;

Germaine is the mutant key to our new stellar emergence, aided by superhumans whose task is to prepare
ALL worlds for the coming threat of the Kosmikons. (This is a Unisol word for Cosmi-Khans,
Dark Force hordes from Beyond.) Hence the Star Wardens' secret communications via
the Quasar Crystals, to those who are "ready" to understand.

On the personal side, Star Man's perennial enemy is Vincent Cardwell,
nefarious empire builder.. The mysterious woman between them is the beautiful mutant,
Anne Cardwell, who bears a mutant son. Actually there are twins, one of whom is
a negative personality, kidnaped by Cardwell and groomed for becoming Sol's first
emperor. The indestructible Emperor becomes a nemesis to both Cardwell AND Germaine.
Through a stolen Quasar Crystal, he contacts alien agencies of the dreaded Kosmikons.

The Star Man series is never-ending in its wide-ranging expansions
and thought-variant scope. Alien

The saga of the Star Man began in 1978 when the late Stuart J. Byrne, a
multilingual engineer and science fiction pulp magazine author who had
written for Amazing, Imagination, and Other Worlds, was hired to help translate
and polish some of the later Ace reprints of the fabled Perry Rodan books. When Ace books was sold to a new publishing company, the new
editors were not sympathetic to the Perry Rhodan books and dropped the series.

The literary agent then representing the Rhodan series in
the U. S., Forrest J Ackerman, had long been a fan and supporter of the books
and tried to establish a company of his own to continue bringing them out in
the U. S., and Stuart J. Byrne was hired to translate them. Unfortunately, the cost of publication and the somewhat
amateurish look of the Master Publications Perry Rhodan books resulted in
declining sales. As a result, the German rights holders decided to cancel the
American license.

When that happened Ackerman asked Byrne, who had written
many intergalactic adventures for U.S. pulp magazines in the 1950s, to create his own endlessly unfolding
cosmic adventure – one that would appeal to the same type of reader.

The result was a 12-volume science fictional space opera
unlike any other.

Unfortunately, only the first 11 were published by Master
Publications – and then it went out of business. The 12th volume remained
unpublished until Feb. 2014, when the concluding Star Man novel, "The
Second Empire", was issued by Futures Past Editions in The Sixth Star Man
Omnibus.

The Third Star Man Omnibus #5 The World Changer & #6 The
Slaves of Venus

The Fourth Star Man Omnibus: #7 Lost in the Milky Way &
#8 Time Trap

The Fifth Star Man Omnibus: #9 The Centaurians & #10 The
Emperor

The Sixth Star Man Omnibus: #11 The Return of Star Man &
#12 The Second Empire

What is the Star Man Saga About?

In the far future, Earth, Mars, and Venus are ruled by the
iron hand of dictatorship, as is humanity's first extrasolar colony on Alpha
Centauri. An accident sends modern-day astronaut Steven Germaine to the future
and to the colony, where the inhabitants revive him. Unknown to him, Germaine
has

survived his trip through time due to unique abilities only he possesses,
and soon he becomes the centerpiece in a struggle between the colonists, the
dictatorship, and hierarchies of aliens whose existence no one even suspects. When
he is forced to land on an unexplored world of Alpha Centauri, Germaine's unique
abilities help him overcome the effects of its heavy gravity—and, with the help
of an advanced civilization hiding there, they also help him to become a
"cross-over": one of the Supermen of Alpha. But suspicion and
counter-plots make him a catalyst in an interstellar revolution, leading to
wide-ranging cosmic adventures that build his legend as the Star Man.

The cosmic exploits of Steve Germaine in this series
include: capturing a Cosmium-powered interstellar warship; leading the Alpha revolution;
riding a comet to Luna; raiding the Cosmium vaults on Mars; finding the lost
laboratories of the 23rd century "Magicians" (read: mutants); creating
a Cosmium-powered inversion drive; being lost in a negative universe; discovering
the awesome Nebula Worlds; falling victim to a time trap, and more.

leader of a
revolution; "Si" the human cyborg; Alphie, the batrachian savant with
a child mind and super I.Q.; great Karmax, the Minotaur-like wizard-creator of
the Temonoids; the sacred Zraal, the oldest star race; the Kosmikons, Dark
Force hordes from Beyond—and many more.

The Star Man series is epic in scope and a prime example of
mind-bending, thought-variant science fiction. Alien worlds and civilizations,
negative and alternate-time universes, cosmic purposes, cosmic threats . . .
The Star Man novels are classic space opera by one of the original masters of
the genre.